Lung cancer is the deadliest form of cancer and accounts for nearly 1.6 million newly diagnosed cancer cases around the world annually. Further, the 5-year survival rate of lung cancer patients is less than 15%, partly due to the advanced stage of the disease at the time of diagnosis.
Conventional lung cancer treatment strategies include surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. These strategies have limitations, such as, for example, high temporary remission and severe adverse side effects. Moreover, surgical removal of lung cancer tumors is not always feasible in some patients. For example, many non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients have un-resectable tumors. For several years, the main treatment for these patients has been radiotherapy (RT); however, the 5-year overall survival rate of RT patients is about 5%. Poor overall survival rates in NSCLC patients may also be attributed to intrinsic radiation resistance due to the increased ability to repair DNA damage after radiation therapy (RT).
Therefore, it is crucial to develop improved materials, methods, and systems that can overcome the above limitations and provide targeted and controlled therapy for effective lung cancer treatment for these patients and others.